Non-woven cloth



' July s, 1958 F. w. HARTSTEIN NON-WOVEN CLOTH Filed Oct. 5. 1955 Q29@19 Qik z IN V EN TOR. FRED W H14? 75 TE/A/ ATTORN EY United StatesPatent NON-WOVEN CLOTH Fred-W. Hartstein, Summit, N. J. ApplicationOctober-5,1955, Serial No. 538,705 1 Claim. (Cl..154--46) Myinventionisan improvement in the art of producing cloth for various uses, such'as, for example, the making ofrugs for floors; especially rugs having abody with a top or wearing; surface containing tufts or loops of yarnattached to the body of the rug, commonly known as' chenille rugs.

The principal object of my invention is to provide a novel cloth thatdoes not consist of a woven textile'body, and can be turned out morequickly and at greatly reduced cost.

Another objectis to. provide a sheet of non-woven cloth without warp andweft threads interlaced as by means of. a shuttle in a-loom; but havinga body containing numerous threads or cords in flat layers with portionscrossing one" another and disposed in close proximity throughout; sothat the yarn which makes the loops or tufts for the nappedsor piledsurface of a.chenille rug-cannot fail, as it is stitched through thebody from. oneside to the other, to pass around or through one or moreof the cords or threads at all points of penetration; and thus besecurely, held in place.

A further object is to providesuch a body of cloth of the kind mentionedhavingthreads or cords that are disposed in; lines, and directions thatintersect and fill or occupy virtually the entire areaof the body,leaving, no

. vacant spaces that are open on bothfaces of the cloth.

Hence all the tufts or loops of a chenille rug embedded in such clothwill be caught and tightly retained by said threads or cords.

An additional object is to provide cloth in which there are severallayers of thread or cord in superposed relation, and each layer is indirect contact with an adjacent layer and firmly adhering thereto; and,when utilized for a chenille rug, the yarn or thread for the loops ortufts will be engaged in all said layers.

Still another object is to provide cloth having a body containing linesof thread or cord in superposed layers, some of which may be relativelyheavy and coarse, particularly on one side that will be the back of achenille rug that is to lie against the floor. Hence the pliability ofthe rug is diminished and stiffness and weight is imparted to the rug,and its bulk is increased to such an extent that it will never rumple orslip along the floor when walked upon; and risk of any one falling whenstepping on the rug is obviated.

Yet a further object is to provide cloth having a body formed of threadsor cords in superposed united layers, one or more of which may containrelatively thick threads or cords and is adapted to receive and hold acoating or layer of rubber or the like, so that when it serves as a bodyfor a rug, it will have greater frictional engagement with the floor orother surface on which the rug is laid.

Other objects and advantages are made clear in the followingdescription, and the characteristics of my improvement are defined inthe claim. The drawings illustrate a preferred embodiment of myimprovement, but numerous variations in minor respects can be adopted2,842,472 Patented July 8, 1958 ice in harmony with the general plan inwhich the invention resides.

On said drawings,

Figure 1 shows one side or face of a sheet of cloth according to myinvention;

Figure 2 shows the opposite side; and

Figure 3 shows how the tufts or loops of a chenille rug are connectedwith the cords or threads in the cloth.

The numeral 1 indicates a body for a floor rug comprising. a layer ofcords or threads 2, which extend longitudinally of the body. They arelocated side by side, parallel to one another and'to the opposite edgesof the body and all the cords or lines of yarn 2 are preferablystraight, and they make up the middle layer-of'the body 1, which is ofcourse as long and as wide asthe size of the rug requires.

On each face of the body 1 is another layer of cords or yarn extendingfrom end to end and side to side of the body, and arranged in parallelzigzag lines. The upper layer shown in Figure 1 contains such lines ofcords 3; and the undulant portions 4 are joined by rounded or somewhatpeaked bends 5. The cords 2 may have small spaces between adjacentlines, but the cords 3' are close enough to-be virtually all in contactwith one another throughout. The layer of cords 3 thus coverssubstantially all the upper surface of the body 1.

The opposite face of the body 1 has a similar layer of cords 6,extending in zigzag linesover the full length and from one side to theotherof the body- 1. The undulant portions 7 of the cords 6 alsohave'rounded bends 8, and the bends 5 and 8 do not coincide; but'thebends in each set of zigzag cords 3 and 6 overliethespaces 10 betweenthe bends of the other set. The cords 6 also are all virtually incontact with one another over the whole extent of the body 1-, and: thusthe texture of the body is continuous throughout and has no intersticesor small crevices in either or'both' surfaces into which yarn to formdouble-stemmed tufts or loopsfor the piled wearing surface of arug mightbe forced,.without-"being engaged by one of the cords 2, 3 or 6, andmade fast to the body 1. Bends 8 may also be peaked.

All the central cords 2 are given a light coating of adhesive to holdthe layers together. The cords or lines of yarn may all be of one sizein the three layers, or in one layer the zigzag cords may be relativelycoarse, if desired, to impart stiffness and bulk to the body, so that itwill not easily fold or rumple. A rug made with such cloth will tend toremain flat when laid out on a floor or other supporting surface. When arug is desired, the body after completion is subjected to the action ofa multiplicity of needles in a chenille rug machine of well knownconstruction to stitch the yarn through to form the piled surface. Thisoperation is diagrammatically indicated in Figure 3, which shows a lineof yarn 11 passing with successive bends 12 through all the layers 2, 3and 6, and presenting successive loops 13 upon the layer 3, forinstance. When the outer ends of the loops 13 between the bends are cutoff, pile elements consisting of the usual two-stemmed tufts 14 remain,covering the entire layer 2. At no point in the body will yarn at thebends 12 pass through an opening between the cords, because there is nosuch orifice or opening; and fail to be caught by at least one thread;but all pile threads will transfix the cords of at least one layer andthus the yarn will be actually connected to the body at all of the bends12. When the piled surface of the rug is finished, a layer of rubber orother suitable material is coated upon the opposite side of the rug, andthis layer will cover the bends 12 and all the cords 6. Cloth accordingto this invention can of course be used for many other purposes, such asbagging or wrapping material.

The body 1 is comparable to woven fabric turned out seasons.

in a loom; thus in rug making, the expense of installingand operatinglooms is obviated. Such looms, though not usually part of the equipmentof a rug plant, must be set up somewhere else and be of suflicientcapacity to supply a rug-making machine fully. A chenille rug machineoperates faster than a loom, and many looms are required to deliverenough cloth to keep a chenille machine in regular operation. The costof looms is necessarily high and the yardage produced is pricedaccordingly. Further, the cost of weaving cloth in a loom increases asthe width of the cloth increases, because the shuttle throw is longer;and, moreover, in woven cloth with warp and weft, the weft threads areunder greater stress in cloth of greater width, and such cloth issometimes spongy in many places. With cloth produced as describedherein, cloth of great width can be made as easily and rapidly as clothof less width. All the cords 2, 3 and 6 will be equally stressedeverywhere in the process; and the cloth will be uniformly flat and notspongy at any point.

With my invention, no looms for woven cloth are needed, for the body 1can be made with a much simpler and less expensive machine, as set forthin my copending application Serial No. 538,706 of even date herewith,and more rapidly and at greatly reduced expense. The cloth is durableand attractive in appearance. With cloth of this invention rugs, forinstance, can be made cheaply enough to compete with reed or grass rugswhich are brought into service during summers and other warm Such rugswould of course not have a piled surface.

Rugs of the last-named variety can be plain without a piled or tuftedwearing surface, and may be turned out with two layers of yarn, as wellas three layers.

In chenille rug making, after a coating of plastic such as rubber is putupon the cords 6 for the under face of the rug, the rug is then dyed andfinished.

When intended to serve other purposes, the loops or tufts are omittedand the cords in the layers 2, 3 and 6 'may receive a light spraying orcoating of plastic, if

desired, and then used for bagging or wrapping material, the plasticbeing put on by spraying.

The lines of yarn 2, 3 and 6 are shown in part only in the drawings, butit is of course understood that the three layers will extend over theentire area indicated by the numeral 1 for all widths and lengths ofsuch cloth.

The cloth above described may sometimes be made with fewer zigzag linesof yarn such as the yarns 3 and 6, so that the zigzag or undulantportions 4 are spaced apart, leaving interstices in the body of thecloth. When thus finished the cloth will be mesh cloth like netting.

The cloth of this invention can also be wrought with two groups orlayers only instead of three, one layer containing yarn in straightlines and other yarn in zigzag lines, or both groups or layers maycontain yarn in zigzag lines; with the adhesive on either layer, as maybe desired.

Having described my invention, what I believe to be new is:

Cloth having a body comprising a layer of straight parallel cords andtwo other layers of cords, one upon each face of the aforesaid layer,the cords of each layer lying fiat in the plane thereof, the cords ofthe other layers crossing the straight cords in zigzag lines and incontact therewith at all points of intersection, and united thereto atall said points of contact, the bent portions of the zigzag cords of oneof said other layers coinciding with spaces between the bends in thezigzag cords of the remaining other layer, said cords of the zigzaglayers being substantially all in contact with one another over thewhole extent of the body, whereby the texture of the body issubstantially continuous throughout.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS638,247 Hyatt Dec. 5, 1899 1,618,903 Ammann-Haberstich Feb. 22, 19272,020,892 Kadlec Nov. 12, 1935 2,266,761 Jackson et al. Dec. 23, 19412,696,243 Holland Dec. 7, 1954 2,704,734 Draper et al. Mar. 22, 19552,713,012 Hartstein July 12, 1955 2,732,885 Van Der Hooven Jan. 31, 19562,738,296 Runton et al. Mar. 13, 1956 2,738,298 David et al. Mar. 13,1956

